A Crown This Cold And Heavy Audiobook Novels & Stories

Beneath the Crown Rowan’s POV The crown began to glow. No one moved. Then the baby cried. Kael turned back to me immediately. “Give him to me.” I shook my head. “He's frightened.” “I know.” Kael came closer. The glow from the crown spread through the walls. The seven stars carved into the floor appeared one after another. Then the eighth. Blood-red. The captured man laughed. “You finally see it.” Kael pointed his sword at him. “Explain.”

Clear cold. Sharp as winter air and deep as the ocean floor. The contrast nearly overwhelmed me. Boiling blood. Freezing current. Fire and ice colliding inside my body without destroying each other. Instead— They balanced. The marks on my arms lit beneath my skin, brighter than ever before, and I understood with sudden certainty that this crown was not adding power to me. It was recognizing what was already there. My breathing came shallow. The room had gone blurred at the edges. I could hear whispers.

All I hear is, "By the power vested upon me, you will become the queen of Evergreen, from today until forever!" A maid removes my crown and my father stands up. He walks next to the high priest. The priest takes a few steps back and my father takes the queen's crown. Gently, he crowns me with it and says, "I am so proud of you!" I force a smile and curtsy as father nods and goes back into his place. I face the crowd once and for all. The high priest announces, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Children, world-- help me welcome the new Queen of Evergreen, Aurora Wintershade!"

It looked impossibly heavy, like it was forged from the core of the world. "The Crown is not gold, Xian’na. It is lead. It is stone. It is the mountain that never moves." As she placed the crown on my head, the physical gravity tripled. My spine popped, and my knees hit the bedrock with a thud that sent a shockwave through the ground. The pressure was immense—it felt like a thousand tons were pressing me into the dirt. My lungs were collapsing. I thought of Samuel waiting for me. I thought of my brothers. I thought of the Holy Wolf’s destiny.

"Again." My skin engulfed in flames as the crown was placed on my head again. I screamed out as I felt my body caving in on me, my bones crushing into a million pieces as I watched the land die. Ice so cold it burned my body. My insides were melting and freezing. I would choose death over this pain. I screamed as I felt something move from my belly and spread through my body. It was cold as it was painful. I felt it slip out my skin through my fingers and feet. Rather than relieve me of the pain, the movement intensified the pain I felt, making me scream and call out. Words made no sense to me. My surroundings had faded into pitch black with occasional visions from the crown coming to view.

His voice carries through the square as he begins the ancient rites. “On this day, before the eyes of our people, under the sky that has watched our kingdom rise and fall for generations, we crown a ruler to guide us.” The words feel distant. My gaze flicks back to the crowd. Scanning. Searching. No Althea. My skin itches under the collar. Something’s wrong. I can feel it. The chancellor turns to me, holding the crown in both hands. It’s gold. Pure. Heavy with history. He lifts it, stepping forward—

“When the time comes.” He lifts his hand and presses his fingers against my forehead. Heat floods my skull, but not pain. Memory and magic. Visions crash into me: A wolf wrapped in flame standing at the mouth of a burning forest. A woman with eyes like Zenith’s, cradling a newborn wrapped in silver light. A throne made of obsidian, cracked straight through the middle. A war. A kiss. A howl that splits the sky. And then, his voice, soft again. “Awaken, Crownless One.”

Chapter 7: The Crown of Ashes The echoes of the collective howl lingered in the air long after the last wolf silenced its cry. For Audrey, the world felt strangely quiet, as if the heavy veil she had lived under for twenty-one years had finally been lifted. The golden light that had radiated from her skin receded, leaving behind a humming warmth that settled deep in her marrow. It was no longer a frantic fire; it was a steady, rhythmic pulse that felt like the very heart of the earth.

“I want you honest.” She turned to Vow again. “And what happens if the Crown lies?” There was a beat of silence. Then—for the first and last time—Triarch Vow spoke. “If the Crown lies,” the voice rasped through the hood, genderless and sharp as glass, “then the city burns.” Later, in a room without screens, without files, without exits—he handed her a coat. Black. Fitted. Cut like armor. “You’re inside now,” Domenik said. “You dress like it.”

Sharp enough to steal the air from my lungs. My eyes flew open as the connection deepened, unstable but insistent. Images flickered through my mind, too fast to hold at first, until one forced itself into clarity. The crown. Dark. Heavy. And then something beneath it. A flaw. Not something visible, not something physical, but something that could be felt through the echo itself. My breath caught. “There is a way,” I said, my voice low but intense. Every gaze snapped to me. “The crown can be overwhelmed.”